Skift Q&A: Airlines and airports should be smarter about Wi-Fi and social media
Photo Credit: SimpliFlying's Shashank Nigam, speaking earlier today at SITA's Air Transport IT Summit in Brussels, Belgium. SITA Online
Skift Take
Free Wi-Fi on airlines makes a lot of sense. It should be viewed as a necessary utility. But, the Wi-Fi systems will have to improve because they can't handle bandwidth demands even now with so few passengers using the onboard Wi-Fi.
SimpliFlying CEO and founder Shashank Nigam believes airlines should offer free, onboard Wi-Fi, and that many of airlines and airports are laying their marketing on too thick and clumsily in social media. Nigam presented his views at SITA's 2013 Air Transport IT Summit outside Brussels today, and Skift caught up with him afterwards.
Skift: You believe airlines should start offering free, on-board Wi-Fi. Why is that?
Nigam: I have a very strong opinion about that. The paid Wi-Fi model right now just breaks. With a $12 fee, neither do you get enough adoption as it's only around 5%, and that's not enough to make any money off that. And neither do you provide any sort of customer experience enhancement. So decide: Do you want to make money? Then charge $50 for it. Or do you want to provide a customer service, and then provide Wi-Fi for free.
And, when you provide it free, there are lots of revenue opportunities. Imagine every plane as a marketing node in the sky where you are
